Swiss startup Lakera, specializing in protecting generative AI applications from malicious prompts and other threats, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by European venture capital firm Atomico, with additional participation from Dropbox’s VC arm, Citi Ventures, and Redalpine.
Generative AI, powered by large language models (LLMs), is revolutionizing various industries but also raises significant security and data privacy concerns. LLMs enable machines to generate human-like text but can be vulnerable to prompt injections, where crafted prompts trick AI into unauthorized actions or revealing confidential data. Lakera aims to address these vulnerabilities with its innovative security technology.
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Innovative Solutions and Technology
Founded in Zurich in 2021, Lakera launched with $10 million in funding and offers a low-latency AI application firewall that secures traffic into and out of generative AI applications. Lakera’s first product, Lakera Guard, leverages a database of insights from open-source datasets, in-house research, and user interactions with an interactive game called Gandalf. This game helps build a “prompt injection taxonomy” to categorize and defend against various attacks.
Lakera’s CEO, David Haber, explained: “Our AI models detect malicious interactions in real-time, continuously learning and evolving with the threat landscape. By integrating with Lakera Guard, companies can safeguard against prompt injections and other malicious prompts.”
Global Expansion and Market Adoption
With the new funding, the company plans to expand its global presence, particularly in the U.S., where it already counts several high-profile customers, including AI startup Respell and Canadian unicorn Cohere. The company also offers specialized models to scan prompts and application outputs for toxic content, which is crucial for public-facing applications like chatbots.
Haber highlighted the growing market interest: “Enterprises, SaaS companies, and AI model providers are racing to secure their AI applications. Financial services organizations, in particular, are early adopters due to security and compliance risks.”
Support from Leading Investors
The Series A round saw significant support from Atomico, Dropbox’s VC arm, Citi Ventures, and Redalpine. These investments underscore the importance and potential of Lakera’s solutions in safeguarding the future of AI applications.
With this substantial investment, the swiss startup is well-positioned to enhance its AI security solutions and support enterprises worldwide in protecting their AI systems from emerging threats.
